News

Padmore & Rihon Take P4 at Paul Ricard

6th September 2011

Nick Padmore and co-driver Jean-Lou Rihon once again kept up their competitive pace and performance in the French V de V Championship by taking 4th position in Round 5 at Paul Ricard, France at the weekend.

Qualifying was spent mostly on finding a decent balance with the set up on their Norma M20 FC, meaning Reigate's Padmore could only post the 7th fastest time with a 2.09.113 for Sunday's 4-hour endurance.

Rihon started the race but, running with a heavy fuel load, he dropped back to P14 in the opening stages. However, the strategy later paid off and he was able to stay out longer in his stint which enabled him to bring the #34 Team TFT entry in for Padmore in 7th position.

Padmore made good use of his stint and, despite having to contend with the heat, put in consistently quick times to bring the car across the line in 4th place.

Nick Padmore: "We had a good strategy today and the car felt really good all weekend so this is a good result which moves us up to 4th in the championship standings now. It would have been really good if we could have got on the podium but we've learned a few more things about the car which we will take to the next race at Nogaro.

"With there only being three races left this season, we need to keep the pressure on and keep up with the development of the car. Our pace in the past few races has been very encouraging and Team TFT are doing a great job so I think we should be able to carry the momentum through and look for a strong result at Nogaro. It's the team's home circuit so that will give all of us extra motivation to perform and, after today's result, Jean-Lou (Rihon) and I are very positive as we head in to the remaining races of the season."

There is now a three week gap before the next round of the French V de V Championship which takes place at Nogaro, France on 23rd - 25th September. However, in the meantime, Padmore and Rihon are back on duty with Team TFT again this weekend in the SPEED EuroSeries at Silverstone this weekend, supporting the Le Mans Series.